Handsome 4-8-2 No. 4018 marches away from Chicago’s Grand Central Station with Soo Line train 17 for Duluth, Minn., with cars for Minneapolis and Ashland, Wis., in May 1949. Harold Stirton photo […]
Section: Photos
GM&O RS1 at Joliet
The engineer of a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio RS1 eyes the photographer as his locomotive clatters across the Rock Island diamonds at Joliet, Ill., in 1951. The Alco and a caboose are bound for GM&O’s South Joliet yard. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Inside GN’s 1951 Empire Builder
The 1951 edition of Great Northern’s flagship train, which the road called the Mid-Century Empire Builder at the time, included a 60-seat coach for short-haul passengers. GN photo […]
Last duty for a PRR Mikado
In September 1955, workers at the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Renovo (Pa.) engine terminal prepare L1s 2-8-2 No. 8426 for service as a stationary steam supply at the road’s giant Sunnyside Yard in New York City. The Mike has been converted to oil-firing for this duty, most likely its last assignment. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Double trouble
CSX train Q509 joins the east-west main line in Deshler while train Q365 prepares to depart for Cincinnati in the distance. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]
Big Sky local
Pacific 2119 leads Northern Pacific train 288 east in Silver Bow Canyon, a dozen miles west of Butte, Mont., in the late 1940s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
NYC’s Commodore Vanderbilt Hudson
New York Central class J-1e 4-6-4 No. 5344 received sheet-metal shrouding in 1934, making it the first streamlined steam locomotive in America. Carl F. Kantola of NYC’s equipment engineering department created the design. The Hudson was named Commodore Vanderbilt after the NYC’s famous early leader, but initially displayed no road number. Glenn Grabill photo […]
Poof!
CSX train Q257 with C40-8W No. 7893 rolls past the signal at MP 51 on the former Toledo & Ohio Central main line three miles north of Arlington, Ohio, on Jan. 19, 2014. Photo by Dale A. DeVene Jr. […]
Siskiyou scene
Southern Pacific SD9 No. 4346 leads a Siskiyou line train through Rice Hill, Ore., on Oct. 27, 1987. Photo by David Lassen […]
Lakeside
Western New York & Pennsylvania Alco C430 No. 432 and C424 No. 4228 haul westbound train OL-1 drifting along the waters of Andover Pond at Andover, N.Y., on the afternoon of Aug. 16, 2009. Photo by Thomas Mik […]
Camouflage
With its Burlington Northern-painted SD40-2 nearly blending into the background, Wisconsin & Southern train T003 eases through Waukesha, Wis., on June 2, 2014. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]
Three major NYC yards
Selkirk Yard near Albany, N.Y. New York Central Cornerstone of New York Central’s $25 million “Castleton Cutoff” improvement project, Selkirk opened on November 20, 1924. Central’s objective was to bypass congestion at Albany, where two Hudson River drawbridges and the “Water Level Route’s” one big bump, the 1.75 percent West Albany grade between the Hudson […]